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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Clothes Make the Character: The Basics

Look at that handsome slug! All dressed
up in a new costume and ready to go for today’s article! I begin a new series, and a
new section as we look at the basics of Character Design!

Those that are familiar with my site
know that among the reviews and random stuff I do, I like talking
about characters, and what goes into making them. And how a character
looks is a large part of that. And since I’ve been meaning
to jump on the character redesign bandwagon for a while... Y'know
what? New series! (because I don’t have enough already, right?)

So every so often (This isn’t a
monthly series), I’ll be posting articles focusing on visual
character design. Costumes, symbols, “the double standard”, etc.
And with each topic, I’ll be posting a redesign of a known comic
characters. And not just popular Marvel or DC characters, either. In
fact, if there is a character or a topic you want to see discussed,
I’ll try to obliged (I can’t guarantee I’ll redesign every
character asked.)

Today however, I'm first going to
quickly review some of the basics. And I do mean basic. Some of this
branches into writing as well as the visual stuff. And though I’ll
be going into more detailed topics such as logos/symbolism and “the
double standard”. And even though they are just basic, all of these
aspects will come into play with the characters I’m redesigning.
Okay? Okay. Lets get started:

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1) You are allowed to break these rules

Probably the most important rule. Lots
of people learn one way to do things, and then fall into the trap of
only doing it that way, without realizing that they don’t have to.
You don’t have to draw your character in the exact same style as
the genre it inspired. You don’t have to use the exact same pen as
your favorite artist, etc.

I am not an expert in... anything,
really. All I’m doing is giving my opinions based on what I’ve
learned. And one of the first things I’ve learned is that
EVERYTHING has at least one exception. For every rule, there is a
“but” or an “unless”.

“They’re more like guidelines,
anyway”.

So now that I’ve completely destroyed
the integrity of these articles...

2) Costumes and the characters wearing
them, should be unique

Vague, I know. But this is the key
element to character design. And this goes for characters, costumes,
settings, etc. Make it memorable. Iconic. It’s okay to be inspired
by other peoples characters, but if it gets to the point that your
character becomes “wolverine clone #274”, then there’s a
problem... and probably a copyright infringement. Almost everything
about character design extends from this theme,

So how do you make the character
Iconic?

That is... a much harder and complex
question. The list on just “how” to make your character iconic is
a mile long. This list has a few ideas but each of the articles will
be discussing portion. And speaking of...

3) The character silhouette.

Part of making a character unique is to
keep them from looking like every other character in the story. If
characters come from the same culture, where its normal to where
the exact same clothes and hair, all right, that’s one thing. But
unless the characters are also twins or exact clones as well, their
faces and heights are probably not going to look the same. One way to
test this is by coloring your character completely in black, showing
only the silhouette. If you can’t tell the difference between the
characters, you might have to go back to the drawing board, so to
speak (UNLESS, maybe it’s important to your story for them to look
exactly the same).

For instance, here are two characters silhouettes and...

...Wait a sec...This isn't right...

Oh. Nevermind.

Well, as you can see, even if the silhouettes are very similar, you can see differences between between the characters, even subtle ones.

4) Features

I’m going to give an example this
time: I once read CSI: Intern at your own risk. It was an okay story.
But I kept getting two of the key characters confused because the
character designs were so similar.

When colored, all the characters look pretty unique. But the comic was in black and white. Take a look:

Hair and faces were almost exactly
alike when drawn in black and white. The only difference is that one
character had a small bow-tie and longer bangs. Another character has
the exact same bangs, but had his hair colored in black while the
other was colored in white. The other two key characters were a
woman, and a tall buff man with buzzed hair.

See the problem here?

This is a bad example of character
design. Not only do we have three examples of bad character
silhouettes, but getting the actual faces confused is even worse. (I
should note that the fact they looked so similar was not a plot
point. Just bad character design) It’s not always enough to give
small touches like one character wears a bow-tie. The actual facial
features need to be more distinct so readers don’t get more
confused. This also goes with names and appearances in novels. Let
your characters show off a bit more of their own personal style.

5) Color, Color, Color

While were on the topic of features, lets talk about color. If you look at the New 52 teen Titans verses the pre new 52 versions, the new costumes really aren’t that interesting. And we can blame it on the color

They all look so much the same that they look bland,
while the former versions cover the entire rainbow. Not only does
this make each character more distinct from one another, it also
makes for some really great group shots. The new costumes just seem
to... blend in together.

This could have been better if the
characters had received the costumes as a common uniform after
becoming a team, which they did not. It would have at least made
sense.

6) Suits the character’s personality
and the world around them

This one is easy to misunderstand and,
does have a lot of exceptions to it. So I'll go into more detail in
upcoming articles. Basically? There should be reasons behind what a
character is wearing. Reasons that also fit into the world they
exist. Technologies that the characters use should be able to exist
in the world they live in... unless you can find a reasonable
explanation around that. They can see into the future or they're a
super genius or something like that. I’m just throwing ideas out
there... see what I mean by exceptions?

And no, “because you want to” is
not a good enough reason. I don’t care how big their boobs might
be, Don’t dress up your character in a thong bikini if they would
never, ever, ever wear that. Moving on.

7) Characters vs. Choice

This topic is mainly related to writing
characters, so Ill only touch on it here. There’s ideas about the
illusion of choice that characters have. That, despite the characters
saying they have a choice, it’s actually the writer that
chooses for them. The reader only sees the illusion. The
writer decides how the story goes, how the characters act. And how
they look.

I bring this up because, while
researching the heroine, Power Girl. She had argued in one comic that
she wore her outfit (the one with the boob window) because she didn’t
care about showing off her body. The statement was an obvious poke at
the readers against the costume. And some readers responded back that
Power Girl is a fictional character, and that didn’t matter what she
thought, and that this was all just a way for the writers and artists
can justify putting her in a skimpy outfit.

Geh.

Okay, the Power Girl vs feminism thing
is a storm for another day. I’m not going to talk about it here and
I’m not going to get into whether or not the angry readers were
right or wrong.

But, yes. We decide what their
personalities are like because they are purely fictional. But the
difference between putting a character into anything we want and
putting them in something that actually suits the character we wrote,
is the difference between good character design and bad. And the
difference between making that illusion successful or not. If your
character is the type to where skimpy fansevice-ly clothes, then
that’s what you put them in. If not, then don’t do it and then
say that the character choose that outfit.

8) Learn to change your mind

You don’t have to stick to the first
idea that pops in your head. Heck, you don’t have to stick with the
idea that you made 2 years ago (trust me, I know). If the character
you started with isn’t working in your draft, then your allowed to
change them. Editing is one of those long, grueling things that
writers kinda have to just deal with...

Hey! Don’t look at me like that! I’m
not saying to completely throw that character away. Just... put them
to the side. You may use them in another place.

Good example is how Dan Shive evolved
his character, Grace. Though I should warn, it’s a wee bit spoilery:

If you haven't read his comic, El Goonhish Shive, One: Shame on you! and Two: Don't worry if you don't know who the characters are. This is just one example of evolving characters. There are other really good examples in the rest of his Painted Black: special features. But I suggest you read the comic first before looking at them. (Plus, the comic is awesome)

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So that’s it for now. In two weeks,
I’ll be back, with the first character redesign, and the first big topics: Character Icons.

And what character will I be using...?

Let the shit storm begin.

Seeya,

Tegan Dumpleton aka, SlugLady28

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Credits:

Finally! About time this series started.

As usual, Sam and my SlugLady avatar are mine. But not any of the other characters are.

So, I've decided to update officially on weekends now, but the sketch-log is still only updating every two weeks. Next time will be the next character design article, but after that... that's a surprise.